West Michigan Red Cross volunteers head to East Coast during Hurricane Florence

More than a dozen Red Cross volunteers from West Michigan are headed to the East Coast to help out during Hurricane Florence.

A two man crew is on standby right now in Kalamazoo, keeping a watchful eye on the hurricane's path. As soon as there's more accurate information on when and where Florence will make landfall, the crew will hit the road.

Don Milburn and Nick Ostrosky will make the long journey to the east coast together where emergency officials are warning there could be catastrophic damage.

"I got a phone call yesterday that said pack your bags, be ready to go at a moments notice. So that's what I've been doing," Ostrosky said.

Ostrosky has been a Red Cross volunteer for a year and a half and this will be his first national deployment. The former volunteer firefighter is ready to hit the ground running.

"You could really say this is just kind of in my blood," he said.

His preparation for this trip goes beyond packing his bags and loading up supplies.

"The other part is really mental. You have to start imagining what it's going to be like being in an area where there is no water there is no power. You may be sleeping in a gymnasium with 300 different people," Ostrosky said.

Evacuations have already begun in several east coast states, supplies has quickly disappeared off the shelves at grocery stores.

Ostrosky and Milburn will use an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) to distribute food and water.

"We will have these vehicles going out into neighborhoods doing mobile feeding for people who can live in their residences or people that don't have power, they don't have potable water, things like that," Ostrosky said.